Coming Out Colton | Netflix | ★ ★
Former NFL player Colton Underwood came to prominence in the USA when he joined The Bachelor franchise. In 2018 he was a contestant on The Bachelorette, and he then went on to appear on The Bachelor in Paradise and was was the star of 2019’s The Bachelor.
Much was made of Underwood’s status a a virgin, after he shared he’d never have sex and held traditional religious views. On the show he reportedly found love with speech pathology student Cassie Randolph. The couple’s relationship came to end 18 months later amid accusations of harassment and stalking.
Then in March this year Underwood made a bold declaration, sitting down for an interview with Robin Roberts on Good Morning America, the reality TV star shared that he was gay and had struggled with his sexuality, religious beliefs and mental health for years.
In a six-part reality series Coming Out Colton that’s just debuted on Netflix camera crews follow Underwood as he heads towards that landmark interview. We follow him as he shares his news with his mother, his best friends, his brother, and then his father. He gets advice from friend and former Olympian Gus Kenworthy on how to negotiate telling his former colleagues in the world of football, and his high school coach.
Along the way he spends time with other football players including Michael Sam who made history when he came out during his playing career. Underwood expresses his regret that when Sam opened a doorway he wasn’t ready to walk through it at the same time.
Throughout the series Underwood is open about his bad choices in life, the effect these had on others and his struggles with mental health. He shares that he only began to accept his sexuality after a failed suicide attempt.
While stories about coming out are always welcome, and they do provide guidance and inspiration to others, Underwood’s series which documents all of his conversations through Mum, Dad, friend, brother, coach, football buddies, old friends, postman, butcher, baker, candlestick maker… is hard going, not because he faced any opposition to his declaration – but because overall everyone is quite cool about his announcement on sexuality.
The succession of people embracing Underwood as he makes his journey from closet to Good Morning America is lovely, but it is drama-free storytelling that is quite a laborious slug to get through. In episode 5 when he finally sits down to tell the world he’s gay, we don’t see any of the footage of his public announcement. I guess they couldn’t clear the rights, but it robs us of an obvious climax.
Instead Gus Kenworthy takes Underwood and his Dad to The Stonewall Inn to enroll in Gay History 101, and then he travels to Los Angeles to catch up with someone of the women who were in his former reality TV series, and he meets Fran Drescher and her former husband Peter Marc Jacobson – who came out as gay after their marriage ended.
Then in a cringeworthy final scene, Underwood heads off for a walk through the woods thinking about all the groundbreaking heroes who came before him, like Harvey Milk and Marsha P Johnston and Matthew Sheppard… and those he’s paving the way for in the future. In episode 5 he didn’t seem to know anything about the Stonewall Riots, but one episode later he’s walking with the giants.
It’s nice that Colton Underwood is out now and happy, it’s great to hear he’s realised stalking people is seriously fucked up, it’s awesome he’s learning some LGBTIQA+ history, and let’s hope there isn’t a series 2 to wade through.
Graeme Watson
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